The Prophet Joseph Smith's Views on the Power and Policy of the Government of the United States (vr. 2)

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POWERS and POLICY

of the

GOVERNMENT

1

BY

JOSEPH SMITH

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HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNiVERSITY

PROVO, UTAH

The following article on the "Powers and
Policy of the Government" was written by Jo-
seph Smith on February 7, 1844. His princi-
ples of good government were as clear as those
of pure religion. If these principles would
have been applied, the perils of Civil War
and other national problems could have been
avoided .

This article resulted from correspondence
between Joseph Smith with J. C. Calhoun and
Henry Clay, candidates for the Presidency of
the United States. Joseph Smith wrote to them
asking, "What would be your rule of action
toward the Latter-day Saints , should you be
elected President?" Because their answers
were so non-commital toward the cruelty and
injustice endured by the Latter-day Saints,
it resulted in Joseph Smith's becoming a can-
didate for the U.S. presidency.

HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

PROVO.UTAH

JOSEPH' SMITH'S VIEWS

Otf THE

Powers and Policy of the

BORN in a land of liberty, and breathing an air
uncorrupted with the sirocco of barbarous climes, I
ever feel a double anxiety for the happiness of all men,
both in time and in eternity.

My cogitations, like Daniel's, have' fo* a long time
troubled me, when I -viewed the condition Of men through-
out the world, and more especially in: this boasted realm,
where the Declaration of Independence " holds these truths
to be self-evident, thafcjall men are created, equ^l ; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights;* that among these are life, liberty o and the pursuit
of happiness; " but at the same time some two or three
millions of people are held as slaves for life, because the
spirit of ^them: is covered with a darker skin than ours; and
hundreds of our own kindred for an infraction; .or supposed
infraction, of some over-wise statute, have to be incarcer-
ated in dungeon glooms, or suffer the more moral peniten-
tiary gravitation of mercy in a .nutshell, while the duellist,
thef .debauchee, and- the defaulter for millions, and other
Cfimw;U$;,tak^ the uppermost rooms at feasts, or, like the
bird x>f passage, find a more congenial clime by flight.

The .wisdom which ought to characterize the freest,

6 POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

wisest, and most noble nation of the nineteenth century,
should, like the sun in his meridian splendor, warm every
obje<5t beneath its rays; and the main efforts of her officers,
who are nothing more or less than the servants of the peo-
ple, ought to be directed to ameliorate the condition of all,
black or white, bond or free; for the best of books says,
' ' God hath made of one . blood all nations of men for to
dwell on all the face of the earth/'

Our common country presents to all men the same
advantages, the same facilities, the same prospers, the
same honors, and the same rewards; and without hypoc-
risy, the Constitution, wlien it says, "We, the people
of the United States, in order to form a more perfeft union,
establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for
the common defence, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our poster-
ity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America," meant just what it said without refer-
ence to color or condition, ad infinitum.

The aspirations and expe<5tations of a virtuous people,
environed with so wise, so liberal, so deep, so broad, and
so high a charter of equal rights as appears in said Consti-
tution, ought to be treated by those to whom the adminis-
tration of the laws is entrusted with as mucfTsan&ity as the
prayers of the Saints are treated in heaven, that love, con-
fidence, and union, like the sun, moon, and stars, should
bear witness,

(For ever singing as they shine,)

" The hand thai made us is Divine!"

Unity is power; and when I rcfle& on the importance
of it to the stability of all governments, I am astounded at
the silly moves of persons and parties to foment discord in
order to ride into power on the current of popular excite-
ment; nor am I less surprised at the stretches of power or

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 7

restrictions of right which too often appear as aft$ of legis-
lators to pave the way to some favorite political scheme as
destitute of intrinsic merit as a wolf's heart .is of the milk of
human kindness. A Frenchman would say, " Prosque tout
aimer richesscs et pouvoir" (Almost all men like wealth
and power.)

I must dwell on this subject longer than others; for
nearly one hundred years ago that golden patriot, Benja-
min,* Franklin, drew up a plan of union for the then colo-
nies of Great Britain, that now are such an independent na-
tion, which, among many wise provisions for obedient chil-
dren under their father's more rugged hand, had this: —
"They have power to make laws, and lay and levy such
general duties, imports, or taxes as to them shall appear
most equal and just, (considering the ability and other cir-
cumstances of the inhabitants in the several colonies,) and
$uch as may be collected with the least inconvenience to
the people, rather discouraging luxury than loading indus-
try with unnecessary burthens." Great Britain surely
lacked the laudable humanity and fostering clemency to
grant such a just plan of union; but the sentiment remains,
like the land that honored its birth, as a pattern for wise
men to study the convenience of the people more than the com-
forts of the cabinet

And one of the most noble fathers of our freedom and
country's glory, great in war, great in peace, great in the
estimation of the world, and great in the hearts of his
countrymen, (the illustrious Washington,) said in his first
inaugural address to Congress — "I behold the surest
pledges that as, on one side, no local prejudices or attach-
ments, no separate views or party animosities will misdirect
the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch
over this great assemblage of communities and interests,
so, on another, that the foundations of our national policy

8 POWERS Al^D POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT

will be 'laid in the ptife and immutable principles of private
morality, arid '"the pre-eminence of free government be
exemplifiek'by'all the attributes which can wiri theaffec-
tio r s of its citizens and command the respe<5l of the world.' *
Verily, here shine the virtue and wisdom of a states-
man in such lucid rays, that had every succeeding Con-
gress followed the rich instruction, in all their deliberations
arid enactments, for the benefit and convenience of the
whole community and the communities of which it is com-
posed, no sound of a rebellion in South Carolina, no rup-
ture in Rhode Island, no mob in Missouri 'expelling her citi-
zens by Executive authority, corruption in the ballot-boxes,
a* border warfare between Ohio and Michigan/ hard tfmes
and distress, outbreak upon outbreak in the principal cities?
murder, robbery, and defalcation, scarcity of money, attd a
thousand' other difficulties, w.6uld have. torn asunder the
bonds of the Union, destroyed the confidence of man" with
man, and left the great body of the people' fo mourn over
misfortunes in poverty brought on.'by corrupt legislation in
an hour of proud vanity for self-aggrandizemeht.

' The great Washington, soon after the foregoing faith-
ful admonition for the common welfare of this 'nation, further
advised Congress that " among the many interesting
obje&s which will engage your attention, that of providing
for the common defence will merit particular regard. To
be prepared for war is one of the most effeftual means' of
preserving peace." As the Italian would say — '• Btiono
aviso" (Good advice.)

The elder Adams, in his inaugural address, gives na-
tional pride such a grand turn of justification, 'that every
honest citizen must look back upon the infancy of the
United States with an approving smile, and rejoice that
patriotism "in their rulers, virtue in the people,' and pros^
perity in the Union once crowned the expectations of hope,

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

unveiled the sophfstry of the hypocrite, and silenced the
folly of foes. Mr. Adams said, "If national pride is
ever justifiable or excusable, it is when it springs not from
power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction o*
national innocence, information, and benevolence."

There is no doubt such was actually the case with our
young realm at the close of the last century. Peace,
prosperity, and union filled the country with religious
toleration, temporal enjoyment, and virtuous • enterprise;
and grandly, too, when the deadly winter of the "Stamp
Acft," the "Tea Acl," and other close communion acts ci
Royalty had choked the growth of freedom of speech,
liberty of the press, and liberty of conscience, did light,
liberty, and loyalty flourish like the cedars of God.

The respeded and venerable Thomas Jefferson, in his
inaugural address, made more than forty years ago, shows
what a beautiful prospect an innocent, virtuous nation
presents to ihe sage's eye, where there is space for enter-
prise, hands for industry, heads for heroes, and hearts for
moral greatness. He said," A rising nation spread over a
wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich
productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with
nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly
to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye, — when I
contemplate these transcendent objects, anc: see the honor,
the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country
committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I
shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before
the magnitude of the undertaking."

Such a prospecft was truly soul-stiring to a good man.
But "since the fathers have fallen asleep," wicked and
designing men have unrobed the Government of its glory;
and the people, if not in dust and ashes, or in sackcloth,
have to lament in poverty her departed greatness, while

io POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

demagogies build fires in the north and south, east and
west, to keep up their spirits till it is better times. . But
year after year has left the people to hope y till the very
name of Congress or State Legislature is as horrible to the
sensitive friend of his country as the house of "Bluebeard"
is to the children, or "CrockfordV Bell of London to
meek men.

When the people are secure and their rights properly
respe&ed, ihen the four main pillars of prosperity — viz.,
agriculture, manufa&ures, navigation and commerce, need
the fostering care of Government; and in so goodly a coun-
try as ours, where the soil, the climate, the rivers, the lakes,
and the sea coast, the produ&ions, the timber, the minerals,
and the inhabitants are so diversified, that a pleasing
variety accommodates all tastes, 'trades, calculations, it cer-
tainly is the highest point of supervision to proted the
whole northern and southern, eastern and western, centre
and circumference of the realm, by a judicious tariff. It
is an old saying and a true one, 'Ui you wish to be re-
speeled, resped yourselves.* '

I will adopt in part the language of Mr. Madison's
inaugural address — " To cherish peace and friendly inter-
course with all nations, having corresponding dispositions;
to maintain sincere neutrality towards belligerent nations;
to prefer in all cases amicable discussion and reasonable
accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an
appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign
partialities, so degrading to all countries, and so baneful to
free ones; to foster a ^spirit of independence too just to
invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own,
too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves, and
too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to
hold the union of the States as the basis of their peace and
happiness; to support the Constitution, which is the cement

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. M

ul the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities;
to respe<5t the rights and authorities reserved to the States
and to the people as equally incorporated with and essen-
tial to the success of the general system; to avoid the
slightest interference with the rights oi conscience or the
fun<5tions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil juris-
diction ; to preserve in their full energy the other salutary
provisions in behalf of private and personal rights, and of
the freedom of the press." — so far as intention aids in the
fulfillment ol duty, are consummations too big with benefits
not to captivate the energies of all honest men to achieve
them, when they can be brought to pass by reciprocation,
friendly alliances, wise legislation, and honorable treaties.
The Government has once flourished under the guid-
ance of trusty servants; and the Hon. Monroe, in his day,
while speaking of the Constitution, says, " Our commerce
has been wisely regulated with foreign nations and between
the States. New States have been admitted into our Union.
Our Territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable
treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the
States respectively protected by the national Government,
under a mild paternal system against foreign dangers, and
enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise partition
of power, a just proportion of the sovereignty, have
improved their police, extended their settlements, and
attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs
of wholesome laws' well administered. And if we look to
the condition of individuals, what a proud spe<5tacle does
it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen in any quarter
of the Union ? Who has been deprived of any right of
person or property? — who restrained from offering his
vows in the mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of
his being? It is well known that all these blessings have
been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add, with pecu-

12 POWERS AND POLICY OF THfe GOVERNMENT.

liar satisfaction, that there has been no example of a capital
punishment being inflifted on any one for the crime of
high treason." What a delightful picfiure of power, policy,
and .prosperity! Truly the wise man's proverb is just —
" Sedaukauh teromain gqy, veh-kasade le-u-mcem kkah-
maut" (Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a
reproach to any people. )

But this is not all. The same honorable statesman,
after having had about forty years' experience in the
Government, under the full tide of successful experiment,
gives the following commendatory assurance of the effi-
ciency of the Magna Charta to answer its great end and
aim — to proteEl the people in their rights. "Such, then,
is the happy Government under which we live; a Govern-
ment adequate to every purpose for which the social com-
pact is formed; a government ele&ive in all its branches,
under which every citizen may by his merit obtain the
highest trust recognized by the Constitution, which con-
tains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance
one portion of the community with another; a Govern*
ment which prote£s every citizen in the full enjoyment ot
his rights, and is able to protect the nation against injus-
tice from foreign powers.' '

Again, the younger Adams, in the silver -age of our
country's advancement to fame, in his inaugural address
(1825) thus candidly declares the majesty of the youthful,
republic in. its increasing greatness: — "The year of jubilee,
since the first formation of our union, has just elapsed:
that of the Declaration of Independence is at hand. The
consummation of both was effe&ed by this Constitution.
Since that period, a population of four millions has multi-
plied to twelve. A Territory, bounded by the Mississippi,
has been extended from sea to sea. New States have been
admitted to the Union, in numbers nearly equal to those of

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 13,

the first confederation. Treaties of peace, amity, and
commerce have been concluded .with the principal domin-
ions of the earth. The people of other nations, the inhabit-
ants of regions acquired, not by conquest, but by compact,
have been united with us in the participation of our rights
and duties, of our turdens and blessings. The forest has
fallen by the axe of our woodman. The soil has been
made to teem by the tillage of our farmers. Our com-
merce has ^whitened every ocean! The dominion of man
ov£r physical nature has been extended by the invention of
our artists. Liberty and law have marched hand in hand.
All the purposes of human association have been accom-
plished as effectively as under any other Government on
the globe, and at a cost little exceeding, in a whole genera-
tion, the expenditures of other nations in a single year."

In continuation of such noble sentiments, General
Jackson, upon his ascension to the great chair of the chief
magistracy, said, "As long as our Government is adminis-
tered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their
will, as long as it secures to us the rights of person and
property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be
worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending, a
patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable cegis."

General Jackson's administration may be denominated
the acme of American glory, liberty, and prosperity; for
the national debt, which in 1815, »on account of the late
war, was $125,000,000, and being lessened gradually, was
paid up in his golden day, and preparations were made to
distribute the surplus revenue among the several States;
and that august patriot, to use his own words in his fare-
well address, retired, leaving "a great people prosperous
and happy, in the full enjoyment of liberty and peace, hon-
ored and respe<5led by every nation of the world."

At the age, then, of sixty years, our blooming Repub-

14 POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

lie began to decline under the withering touch of Martin
Van Buren! Disappointed ambition, thirst for power,
pride, corruption, party spirit, fadlion, patronage, per-
quisites, fame, tangling alliances, priestcraft, and spiritual
wickedness in high places, struck hands and revelled in
midnight splendor.

Trouble, vexation, perplexity, and contention, mingled
with hope, fear, and murmuring, rumbled through thfc-
Union and agitated the whole nation, as would an earth-
quake at the centre of the earth, the world heaving the sea
beyond its bounds and shaking the everlasting hills; so,
in hopes of better times, while jealousy, hypocritical pre-
tensions, and pompous ambition were luxuriating on the ill-
gotten spoils of the people, they ro^e in their majesty like
a tornado, and swept through the land, till General Harri-
son appeared as a star among the storm-clouds for better
weather.

The calm came, and the language of that venerable
patriot, in his inaugural address, while descanting upon the
merits of the Constitution and its frarners, thus expressed
himself: — "There were in it features which appeared not
to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple representative
Democracy or Republic. And knowing the tendency of
power to increase itself, particularly when executed by a
single individual, predictions were made that, at no very
remote period, the Government would terminate in virtual
monarchy."

It would not become me to say that the fears of these
patriots have been already realized. But as I sincerely
believe that the tendency of measures and of men's than-
ions for some years past has been in that dire<5Kon, it is, I
conceive, stri&ly proper that I should take this occasion
to repeat the assurances I have heretofore given of my
determination to arrest the progress of that tendency, if it

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 15

really exists, and restore the Government to its pristine
health and vigor.

This good man died before he had the opportunity of
applying one balm to ease the pain of our groaning coun-
try, and I am willing the nation should be the judge,
whether General Harrison, in his exalted station, upon the
eve of his entrance into the world of spirits, told the truth,
or not, with acting President Tyler's .three years of per-
plexity, and pseudo-Whig-Democrat reign to heal the
breaches or show the wounds, secundum artem (according
to art).

Subsequent events, all things considered, Van Buren's
downfall, Harrison's exit, and Tyler's self-sufficient turn to
the whole, go to show, as a Chaldean might exclaim —
"Beram etai elauh beshmayauh gauhah rauzeen." {Cer-
tainly there is a God in heaven to reveal secrets.}

No honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory
of American liberty is on the wane, and that calamity and
confusion will sooner or later destroy the peace of the peo-
ple. Speculators will urge a national bank as a savior of
credit and comfort. A hireling pseudo-priesthood will
plausibly push abolition doctrines and doings and fi human
rights" into Congress, and into every other place where
conquest smells of fame, or opposition swells to popularity,
Democracy, Whiggery, and cliquery will attract their ele-
ments and foment divisions among th*e people, to accomplish
fancied schemes and accumulate power, while poverty,
driven to despair, like hunger forcing its way through a wall,
will break through the statutes of men to save life, and
mend the breach in prison glooms.

A still higher grade of what the " nobility of nations "
call " great men" will dally with all rights, in order to
smuggle a fortune at " one fell swoop, " mortgage Texas,
possess Oregon, and claim all the unsettled regions of the

16 POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

world for hunting and trapping; and should an humble,
honest man, red, black, or white, exhibit a better title*
these gentry have only to clothe the judge with richer
ermine, and spangle the lawyer's finger with finer rings, to
have the judgment of his peers and the honor of his lords
as a pattern of honesty, virtue, and humanity, while the
motto hangs on .his nation's escutcheon — *' Evety man has
his price/"

Now, O people! people! turn unto the Lord and live,
and reform this nation. Frustrate the designs of wicked
men. Reduce Congress at least two- thirds. Two Sena-
tors from a State and two members to a million of popula-
tion will do more business than the army that now occupy
the halls of the national Legislature. Pay them two
dollars and their board per diem (except Sundays). That
is more than the farmer gets, and he lives honestly. Cur-
tail the officers of Government in pay, number, and power;
for the Philistine lords have shorn our nation of its goodly
locks in the lap of Delilah.

Petition your State Legislatures to pardon every con-
vict in their several penitentiaries, blessing them as they go,
and saying to them, in the name of the Lord, Go thy way y
and sin no more.

Advise your legislators, when they mak£ laws for lar-
ceny, burglary, or any felony, to make the penalty appli-
cable to work upon roads, public works, or any place
where the culprit can be taught more wisdom and more
virtue, and become more enlightened. Rigor and seclu-
sion will never do as much to reform the propensities of
men as reasoaand friendship. Murder only can claim con-
finement or death. Let the penitentiaries be turned into
seminaries of learning, where intelligence, like the angels
of heaven, .would banish such fragments of barbarism.
Imprisonment for debt is a meaner pra6tice than the sav-

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 17

age tolerates, with all his ferocity- li A?nor vincii- omnia *"'
(Love conquers all.)

Petition, also, ye goodly inhabitants of the slave
States, your legislators to abolish slavery by the year
1850, or now, and save the abolitionist from reproach and
ruin, infamy and shame.

Pray Congress to pay every man a reasonable price
for his slaves out of the surplus revenue arising from the
sale of public lands, and from the deduction of pay from
the members of Congress.

Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and
hire him to labor like other human beings; for "an hour
of virtuous liberty on earth is worth a whole eternity of
bondage." Abolish the practice in the army and navy of
trying men by court-martial for desertion. If a soldier or
marine runs away, send him his wages, with this instru&ion,
that his country will never trust kim again; he has forfeited
his honor.

Make honor the standard with all men. Be sure that
good is rendered for evil in all cases, and the whole nation,
like a kingdom of kings and priests, will rise up in right-
eousness, and be respefted as wise and worthy on earth,
and as just and holy for heaven, by Jehovah, the author of
perfection.

More economy in the National and State governments
would make less taxes among the people; more equality
trough the cities, towns, and country, would make less
distin6lion among the people; and more honesty and famili-
arity in societies, would make less hypocrisy and flattery in
all branches of the community; and open, frank, candid de-
corum to all men, in this boasted land of liberty, would beget
esteem, confidence, union and love;. and the neighbor from
any State, or from any country, of whatever color, clime
or tongue, could rejoice when he put his foot on the sacred

IS POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

soil of freedom, and exclaim, The very name of "American"
is fraught with friendship. Oh, then, create confidence!
restore freedom! break down slavery! banish imprisonment
"or debt, and be in love, fellowship, and peace, with all the
world! Remember that honesty is not subject to law: the
law was made for transgressors; wherefore, a Dutchman
might exclaim — ' ' Ein ehrlicher name ist besser als Reicht-
Aum." (A good name is better than riches.)

For the accommodation of the people in every State
and Territory, let Congress show their wisdom by granting
a national bank, with branches in each State and Territory,
where the capital stock shall be held by the nation for the
mother bank, and by the States and Territories for the
branches; and whose officers and dire&ors shall be ele&ed
yearly by the people, with wages at the rate of two dollars
per day for services; which several banks shall never issue
any more bills than the amount of capital stock in her
vaults and the interest.

The nett gain of the mother bank shall be applied to
the national revenue, and that of the branches to the States
and Territories* revenues. And the bills shall be par
throughout the nation, which will mercifully cure that fatal
disorder known in cities as brokerage, and leave the peo-
ple's money in their own pockets.

Give every man his constitutional freedom, and the
President full power to send an army to suppress mobs, and
the States authority to repeal and impugn that relic of folly
which makes it necessary for the Governor of a State to
make the demand of the President for troop3, in case of
invasion or rebellion.

The Governor himself may be a mobber; and instead
of being punished, as he should be, for murder or treason,
he may destroy the very lives, rights, and property he-
should prote<5l. Like the good Samaritan, send every law-

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 19

yer, as soon as he repents and obeys the ordinances of
heaven, to preach the Gospel to the destitute, without
purse or scrip, pouring in the oil and the wine. A learned
Priesthood is certainly more honorable than "an hireling
clergy r

As to the contiguous Territories to the United States,
wisdom would dire6l no tangling alliance. Oregon belongs
to this Government honorably; and when we have the red
man's consent, let the Union spread from the east to the
west sea; and if Texas petitions Congress to be adopted
among the sons of liberty, give her the right hand of fel-
lowship, and refuse not the same friendly grip to Canada
and Mexico. And when the right arm of freemen is
stretched out in the chara&er of a navy for the prote&ion
of rights, commerce, and honor, let the iron eyes of power
watch from Maine to Mexico, and from California to Col-
umbia. Thus may union be strengthened, and foreign
speculation prevented from opposing broadside to broad-
side.

Seventy years have done much for this goodly land.
They have burst the chains of oppression and monarchy,
and multiplied its inhabitants from two to twenty millions,
with a proportionate share of knowledge keen enough to
circumnavigate the globe, draw the lightning from the
clouds, and cope with all the crowned heads of the
world.

Then why — oh, why will a once-flourishing people
not arise, phcenix-like, over the cinders of Martin Van
Buren's power, and over the sinking fragments and smok-
ing ruins of other catamount politicians, and over the wind-
falls of Benton, Calhoun, Clay, Wright, and a caravan of
other equally unfortunate law doftors, and cheerfully help
to spread a plaster and bind up the burnt, bleeding wounds
of a sore but blessed country ?

20 POWERS AND POLICY OK THE GOVERNMENT.

The Southern people are hospitable and noble. They
w.'H help to rid so free a country of every vestige of slavery,
whenever they are assured of an equivalent for their, prop-
erty. The country will be full of money and confidence
when a National Bank of twenty millions, and a State
Bank in every State, with a million or more, gives a. tone
to monetary matters, and make a .circulating medium as
valuable in the purses of a whole community, as in the
coffers of a speculating banker or broker.

The people may have faults, but they should never be
trifled with, I think Mr. Pitt's quotation in the British
Parliament of Mr. Prior's couplet lor the husband and
wife, to apply to the course which the King and ministry
of England should pursue to the then colonies of the now
United States, might be a genuine rule of aflion for some
of the breath-made men in high places to use towards the
posterity of this noble, daring people: —

"Be to her faults a little blind ;
Be to her virtues very kind."

We have had Democratic Presidents, Whig Presidents,
a pseudo-Democratic-Whig President, and now it is time
to have a President of the United States; and let the* peo-
ple of the whole Union, like the inflexible Romans, when-
ever they find a promise made by a candidate that is not
practised as an officer, hurl the miserable sycophant from
his exaltation, as God did Nebuchadnezzar, to crop the
grass of the field with a beast's heart among the cattle.

Mr. Van Buren said, in his inaugural address, that he
went *'into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncom-
promising opponent of every attempt, on the part oi Con-
gress, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia,
against the wishes of the slave-holding States, and also,
with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest
interference with it in the States where it exists."

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

Poor little Matty made this rhapsodical sweep with the
fact before his eyes, that the State of New York, his native
State, had abolished slavery without a struggle or a groan.
Great God, how independent! From henceforth slavery is
tolerated where it exists, constitution or no constitution,
people or no people, right or wrong: Vox Matti — vox
Diaboli ( (t the voice of Matty — the voice of the Devil)/'
And, peradventure, his great ' 'sub-treasury'' scheme was
a piece of the same mind. But the man and his measures
have such a striking resemblance to the anecdote of the
Welshman and his cart-tongue, that when the Constitution
was so long that it allowed slavery ?t the capitol of a free
people, it could not be cut off; but when it v/as so short
that it needed a sub-treasuty to save the funds of the na-
tion, it could be spliced/ Oh, granny, granny, what a long
tail our puss has got! As a Greek might say,- Hysteron
protcron, (the cart before the horse). But his mighty whisk
through the great national fire, for the presidential chest-
nuts, burnt the locks of his glory with the blaze of his folly!

In the United States the people are the Government,
and their united voice is the only sovereign that should
rule, the only power that should be obeyed, and the only
gentlemen that should be honored at home and abroad, on
the land and on the sea. Wherefore, were I the President
of the United States, by the voice of a virtuous people, I
would honor the old paths of the venerated fathers of free-
dom; I would walk in the tracks of the illustrious patriots
who carried the ark of the Government upon their shoulders
with an eye single to the glory of the people; and when
that people petitioned to abolish slavery in the slave States,
I would use all honorable means to have their prayers
granted, and give lifeerty to the captive by paying the
Southern gentlemen a reasonable equivalent for his prop-
erty, that the whole nation might be free indeed!

POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

When the people petitioned for a National Bank, I
would use my best endeavors to have their prayers
answered, and establish one on national principles to save
taxes, and make them the controllers of its ways and
means. And when the people petitioned to possess the
Territory of Oregon, or any other contiguous Territory,
I would lend the influence of a Chief Magistrate to grant
so reasonable a request, that they might extend the mighty
efforts and enterprise of a. free people from the east to* the
west sea, and make the wilderness blossom as the rose.
And when a neighboring realm petitioned to join the union
of the sons of liberty, my voice would be, Come — yea,
come, Texas; come, Mexico; come, Canada; and come,
all the world; let us be brethern, let us be one great family,
and let there be a universal peace.

Abolish the cruel custom of prisons (except certain
cases), penitentiaries, court-martials for desertion; and let
reason and friendship reign over the ruins of ignorance
and barbarity; yea, I would, as the universal friend of
man, open the prisons, open the eyes, open the ears, and
open the hearts of all people, to behold and enjoy free-
dom — unadulterated freedom; and God, who once
cleansed the violence of the earth with a flood, whose Son
laid down His life for the salvation of all His Father gave
Him out of the world, and who has promised that He will
come and purify the world again with fire in the last days,
should be supplicated by me for the good of all people.

With the highest esteem, I am a friend of virtue and
of the people,

JOSEPH SMITH.
Nauvoo, Illinois, Feb. 7, 1844-

BETWEEN

THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH

AND THE

HONS. J. C. CALHOUN tfi HENRY CLAY

And Other Presidential Candidates.

Nauvoo, III., Nov. 4th, 1843.
Hon. John C. Calhoun.

Dear Sir: — As we understand you are a candidate for
the Presidency at the next election; and as the Latter-day
Saints (sometimes called "Mormons/* who now constitute
a numerous class in the school politic of this vast republic,)
have been robbed of an immense amount of property, and
endured nameless sufferings by the State of Missouri, and
from her borders have been driven by force of arms, con-
trary to our national covenants; and as in vain we have
sought redress by all constitutional, legal, and honorable
means, in her courts, her executive councils, and her
legislative halls; and as we have petitioned Congress to
take cognizance of our sufferings without effect, we have
judged it wisdom to address you this communication, and
solicit an immediate, specific, and candid reply to * ' What
will be your rule of action relative to us as a people"
should fortune favor your ascension to the chief magistracy?

Most respe&fully, sir, your friend, and the friend of
peace, good order, and constitutional rights,

JOSEPH SMITH.

In behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

24 CORRESPONDENCE.

Similar letters w^re written to* General Lewis Cass,
Hon. Richard Ml. Johnson, Hon. Henry Clay, and
President Martin Van Buren. The following paragraph
was added to the letter addressed to Mr. Van Buren :

"Also whether your views or feelings have changed
since the subje6l matter of this communication was pre-
sented you in your then official capacity at Washington, in
the year 1841, and by you treated with a coldness, indiffer-
ence, and negle<5t, bordering on contempt."

J. C. Calhoun's Reply.

Fort Hill, 2na December, 1843.

Sir: — You ask me what would be my rule <** : ft ion rel-
ative to the Mormons or Latter-day Saints, suould I be
elected President; to which I answer, that if I should be
ele&ed, I would strive to administer the government ac-
cording to the Constitution and the laws of the Union;
and that as they make no distjn&ipn- between citizens of
different religious creeds, I should make none. As far as
it depends on the Executive department, all should have
the full benefit of both, and none should be exempt from
their operation.

But as you refer to the case of Missouri, candor com-
pels me to repeat what I said to you at Washington, that,
according to my views, the case does not come within the
jurisdiction of the Federal Government, which is one of
limited and specific powers.

With respeft, I am, &c, &c,

J. C. CALHOUN.

Mr. Joseph Smith.

CORRESPONDENCE. 25

Joseph Smith's Rejoinder to J. C. Calhoun.

Nauvoo, Illinois,

January 2, 1844.

St'f: — Your reply to my letter of lar>t November, con*
cerning your rule of aftion towards the Latter-day Saints,
if ele&ed President, is ^it hand; and that you and your
frieads of the same opinion relative to the matter in ques-
tion may not be disappointed as to me or my mind upon
so grave a subjeft, permit me, as a law- abiding man, as a
well-wisher to the perpetuity of constitutional rights and
liberty, and as a friend to the free worship of Almighty
God by all, according to the dictates of every person's
own conscience, to say I am surprised that a man or men
in the highest stations of public life should have made up
such a fragile "view" of a case, than which there is not
one on the face of the globe fraught with so much conse-
quence to the happiness of men in this world or the world
to come.

To be sure, the first paragraph of your letter appears
very complacent and fair on a white sheet of paper. And
who, that is ambitious for greatness and power, would not
have said the same thing? Your oath would bind you to
support the Constitution and laws; and as all creeds and
religions are alike tolerated, they must, of course, all be
justified or condemned according to merit or demerit.
But why — tell me why are all the principal men held up
for public stations so cautiously careful not to publish to
the world that they will judge a righteous judgment, law
or no law? for laws and opinions, like the vanes of
steeples, change with the wi«d.

One Congress passes a law, another repeals it; and

76 CORRESPONDENCE.

one statesman says that the Constitution means this, and
another that; and who does not know that all may be
wrong? The opinion and pledge, therefore, in the first
paragraph of your reply to my question, like the forced
steam from the engine of a steam-boat, makes the show of
a bright cloud at first; but when it comes in contact with a
purer atmosphere, dissolves to common air again.

Your second paragraph leaves you naked before your-
self, like a likeness in a mirror, when you say that, M accord-
ing to your view, the Federal Government is one of limited
and specific powers," and has no jurisdiction in the case of
the " Mormons." So then a State can at any time expel
any portion of her citizens with impunity, and, in the lan-
guage of Mr. Van Buren, frosted over with your gracious
"views of the case" though the cause is ever so just, Gov-
ernment can do nothing for them, because it has no power.
Go on, then Missouri, after another set of inhabitants
(as the Latter-day Saints did,). have entered some two* or
three hundred thousand dollars 1 worth of land, and made

.extensive Jmprovements thereon. -Go on, then, I say;
banish the occupants or' owners, or kill them, as the mob-
bers did many of the Latter-day Saints, and take thet* land
and property as spoil; and let the Legislature, as in the
case of the " Mormons,"" appropriate a couple of hundred
thousand dollars to pay the mob for doing that job; for the
renowned Senator from South Carolina, Mr. J. C. Calhoun,
says the powers of the Federal Government are so specific

' and limited that it has no jurisdiction of the case! O ye
people who groan under the oppression of tyrants!-*— ye^
exiled Poles, who have felt the iron hand of Russian grasp!.
— ye poor and unfortunate among all nations! come to the
asylum of the oppressed; buy ye lands of the General
Government; pay in your money to the treasury to
strengthen the army and the navy; worship God according

Correspondence. 27

to the di<5tates of your own consciences; pay in your taxes
to support the great heads of a glorious nation: but remem-
ber, a "sovereign State" is so much more powerful than
the United States, the parent Government, that it can exile
you ^pleasure,, mob you with impunity, confiscate your
lands and property, have the Legislature san&ion it, — yea,
even murder you* as an edict of an emperor, and it does no
wrong; for the noble Senator of South Carolina says the
power of *he Federal Government is so limited and specific,
that it has no jurisdiction of the case! What think ye of
imperium in imperiof

Ye spirits of the blessed of all ages, hark! Ye shades
of departed statesmen,, listen! Abraham, Moses, Homer,
Socrates, Solon, Solomon, and all that ever thought of
right and wrong, look down from your exaltations, if you
have any, for it is said in the midst of counsellors there
is safety; and when you have learned that fifteen thousand
innocent citizens, after having purchased their lands of the
United States, and paid for them, .were expelled from a
"sovereign State" by order of the Governor at the point
of the bayonet, their arms taken from them by the same
authority, and their right of migration into said State
denied under pain of imprisonment, whipping, robbing,
mobbing, and. even death, and no justice or recompense
allowed ; and from the • legislature, with the Governor at
the head, down to the justice of the peace, with a bottle
of whisky in one hand and a bowie knife in the other,
hear them all declare that there is no justice for a V Mor-
mon" in that State, and judge ye a righteous judgment,
and tell me when the virtue of the States was stolen, where
the'honorof the General Government lies hid, and what
clothes a senator with wisdom? Oh, nullifying. Carolina!
Qh," little texppestuous Rhode Island! would it not be well
for* the great Vrtfcn of the nation to read the fable of the.

28 CORRESPOXDENXE.

Pa^tia{ Judge, and when part of the free citizens of a State
had been expelled contrary to the Constitution, mobbed,
robbed, plundered, and many murdered, instead of search-
ing into the course taken with Joanna Southcott, Ann Lee,
the French prophets, the Quakers of New England, and
rebellious niggers in the slave States, to hear both sides and
then judge, rather than have the mortification to say, "Oh,
it is my bull that had killed your ox! That alters the case!

I must inquire into it; and if, and if r

* If the General Government has no power to reinstate
expelled citizens to their rights, there is a monstrous
hypocrite fed and fostered from the hard ^earnings of the
people! A real "bull beggar" upheld by sycophants.
And although you may wink to* the priests to stigmatize,
wheedle the drunkards to swear, ai^d raise the hue-and-cry
of— "Impostor! false prophet ! G-d d— n old Joe Smith!"
yet remember, if the Latter-day Saints are not restored to
all their rights and paid for all their losses, according to
the known rules of justice and judgment, reciprocation
and common honesty among men, that God will come out
of his hiding-place, and vex. this nation with a sore vex-
ation: yea, the consuming wrath of an offendec} God shall
smoke through the nation with as much distress and wge as
independence has blazed through with pleasure and delight
Where is the strength of Government? Where is the
patriotism of a Washington, a Warren, and Adams? And
where is a spark from the watch-fire of '76, by which one
candle might be lit that would glimmer upon the confines
of Democracy? Well may it be said that one man is not a
state, nor one state the nation.

In the days of General Jackson, when France refused
the first installment for spoliations, there was power, force,
and honor enough to resent injustice and insult, arid the
money came; and shall Missouri, filled with negro-drivers

CORRESPONDENCE. 29

and white men stealers, go "unwhipped of justice* ' for ten-
fold greater sins than France? No! verily, no! While I have
powers of body and mind — while water runs and grass
grows — while virtue is lovely and vice hateful, and while a
stone points out a sacred spot where a fragment of Ameri-
can liberty once was, I or my posterity will plead the cause
of injured innocence, until Missouri makes atonement for
all. her sins, and sinks disgraced, degraded, and damned
to hell, " where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched."

; Why, sir, the power not delegated to the United
States and the States belong to the people, and Congress
sent to do the peopled business have all power; and shall
fifteen thousand citizens groan in exile? O vain men! -will
ye not, if ye do not restore them to their rights and
$2,000,000 worth of property, relinquish to them, (the Lat-
ter-day Saints,) as a body, their portion of power that
belongs to them according to the Constitution? Power
has its convenience as well as inconvenience. "The world
was not made for Caesar alone, but for Titus too."

I will give you -a parable. A certain lord had a vine-
yard in a goodly land, which men labored in at their pleas-
ure. A few meek men also went and purchased with
money from some of these chief men that labored at pleas-
ure a portion of land in the vineyard, at a very remote
part of it, and began to improve it and to eat and drink the
fruit thereof, — when some vile persons, who regarded not
man, neither feared the lord of the vineyard, rose up sud-
denly and robbed these meek men, and drove them from
their possessions, killing many.

This barbarous a6t made no small stir among the men
'in the vineyard; and all that portion who were attatched to
that part of the vineyard where the men were robbed rose
up in grand council, with their chief men,. who had firstly

30 CORRESPONDENCE.

ordered the deed to be done, and made a covenant not to
pay for the cruel deed, but to keep the spoil, and never, let
those meek men set their feet on that soil again, neither
recompense them for it.

Now these meek men, in their distress, wisely sought
redress of those wicked men in every possible manner, and
got none. Then they supplicated the chief men who held
the vineyard at pleasure, and who had the power to* sell
and defend it, for redress and redemption, and those men,
lovjng the fame and favor of the multitude more than the
glory of the lord of the vineyard, answjered, "Your cause
is just; but we can do nothing for you, because we have
no power."

Now, when the lord of the vineyard saw that virtue
and innocence was not regarded, and his vineyard occu-
pied by wicked men, he sent men and took the possess ion
of it to himself, and destroyed these unfaithfnl servants,
and appointed them their portion among hypocrites.

And let me say that all men who say that Congress has
no power to restore and defend . the rights of her citizens
have not the love of the truth abiding in them. Congress
has power to proteft the nation against foreign invasion
and internal broil; and whenever that body passes an aft
to maintain. right with any power, or to restore right to any
portion of her citizens, it is the SUPREME law of the
land; and should a State refuse submission, that State is
guilty of insurreElioji or rebellion, and the President has as
much power to repel it as Washington had to march against
the ".whisky boys at Pittsburg/ ' or General Jackson had to
send an armed force to suppress the rebellion of South
Carolina.

To close, I would admonish you, before you let your
"candor compel" you again to write upon a subjeft great
as the salvation of man, consequential as the life of. the

CORRESPONDENXE. 31

Savior, broad as the principles of eternal truth, and valu-
able as the jewels of eternity, to read in the 8th section and
1st article of the Constitution of the United States, the first,
fourteenth, and seveiiteenth " specific' ' and not very "lim-
ited powers" of the Federal Government, what can te
done to prote6l the lives, property, # and rights of a virtuous
people, when the administrators of the law and law-rnakers
are unbought by bribes, uncorrupted by patronage, un-
tempted by gold, unawed by fear, and uncontaminated
by tangling alliances — even like Csesar's wife, not only
unspotted, but unsuspeiled! And God, who cooled the
heat of a Nebuchadnezzar's furnace or shut the mouths of
lions for the honor of a Daniel, will raise your mind above
the narrow notion that the General Government has no
power, to the sublime idea that Congress, with the Presi-
dent as Executor, is as almighty in its sphere as Jehovah is
in His.

With great respe<5t, I have the honor to be
Your obedient servant,

JOSEPH SMITH.

Hon. ("Mr.") J. C. Calhoun, Fort Hill, S. C.

32 CORRESPONDENCE.

Reply of Henry Clay.

Ashland, Nov. 15th, 1843.

Dear Sir: — I have received your letter in behalf of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stating
that you understand that I am a candidate for the Presi-
dency, and inquiring what would be my rule of aftion rel-
ative to you as a people, should I be ele<5ted.

I am profoundly grateful for the numerous and strong
expressions of the people in my behalf, as a candidate for
President of the United States; but I do not so consider
myself. That much depends upon future events, and upon
my sense of duty.

Should I be a candidate, I can enter into no engage-
ments, make no promises, give no pledges to any oa/ticular
portion of the people of the United States. If I ev-a enter
into that high office, I must go into it free and unfettered,
with no guarantees but such as are to be drawn from my
whole life, charafler, and conduct.

It is not inconsistent with this declaration to say that I
have viewed with a li\ely interest the progress of the
Latter-day Saints; that I have sympathized in their suffer-
ings under injustice, as it appeared to me, which has been
inflifted upon them; and that I think, in common with
all other religious communities, they' ought to enjoy the
security and protection of the Constitution and the laws.

I ; am with great respeft,

*Your friend and obedient servant,
H. CLAY.

To Joseph Smith, Esq.

CORRESPONDENCE, 33

Joseph Smith's* Rejoinder to Henry Clay.

Nauvoo, Illinois,

May 13th, 1844.

Sir: — Your answer to my inquiry, "What would be
your rule of action towards the Latter-day Saints, should
yoirbe elected President of the United States?"" has been
under consideration since last November, in the fond ex-
pectation that you would give (for every honest citizen has
a right to demand it,) to the country a manifesto of your
views of the best method and means which would secure to
the people, the whole people, the most freedom, the most
happiness, the most union, the most wealth, the most fame,
the most glory at home, and the most honor abroad, at the
least expense. But I have waited in vain. So far as you
have made public declarations, they have made, like your
answer to the above, soft to flatter, rather than solid to feed
the people. You seem to abandon all former policy which
may have actuated you in the discharge of a statesman's
duty, when the vigor of intellect and the force of virtue
should have sought out an everlasting habitation for liberty;
when, as a wise man, a true patriot, and a friend to man-
kind, you should have resolved to ameliorate the lawful
condition of our bleeding country by a mighty plan of wis-
dom, righteousness, justice, goodness, and mercy, that
would have brought back the golden days of our nation's
youth, vigor, and vivacity, when prosperity crowned the
efforts\of a youthful republic, when the gentle aspirations
of the s#ns of liberty were, "We are one!"

In your answer to my questions last fall, that peculiar
ta<5l of modern politicians declaring, " If you ever ente?
into that high office, you must go into it free and unfetterd y

34 CORRESPONDENCE.

with no guarantees but such as are to be drawn from your
whole life ', chat after \ and cowdutt," so much resembles a
lottery-vendor's sign, with the goddess of good luck sit-
ting on the car of fortune, ji-straddle of the horns of
plenty, and driving the merry steeds of beatitude, without
reins or bridle, that I cannot help exclaiming — O frail
man, what have you done that will exalt you ? Can any-
thing be drawn from your life, character, or conduct, that
is, worthy of being held up to the gaze of this nation as a
model of virtue, charity, and wisdom f Are you not a lot-
tery picture, with more than two blanks to a prize ? Leav-
ing many things prior to your Ghent treaty, "let the world
look at that, and see where is* the wisdom, honor, and
patriotism, which ought to have characterized the plenipo-
tentiary of the only free nation upon the ed~Ci ? A
quarter of a century's negotiation to obtain our *irnts on
the north-eastern boundary, and the motley manner in
which Oregon tries to shine as American territory, coupled
with your presidential race and come-by-chance secretary-
ship, in 1825, all go to convince the friends of freedom,
the golden patriots of Jeffersonian Democracy, free trade
and sailor's rights, and the protedlors of person and prop-
erty, that an honorable war is better than a dishonorable
peace.

But had you really wanted to have exhibited the wis-
dom, clemency, benevolence, and dignity of a great man
in this boasted republic, when fifteen thousand free citizens
were exiled from their own homes, lands, and property, in
the wonderful patriotic State of Missouri, and you then
upon your oath and honor occupying the exalted station of
a Senator of Congress from the noble-hearted State of
Kentucky, why did you not show the world your loyalty to
law and order, by using all honorable means to restore the
innocent to their rights and property? Why, sir, the more

CORRESPONDENCE. 35

we search into your character and conduct, the more we
'must exclaim from holy writ, The tree is known by its
fruit.

Again: this is not all. Rather than show yourself an
honest man, by guaranteeing to the people what you will
do in case you should be elected President, "you can enter
into no engagement, make no promises, and give no
pledges" as to what you will do. Well, it may be.' that
some hot-headed partisan would take such nothingarianism
iipon trust; but sensible men and even ladies would think
themselves insulted by such an evasion of coming events!
If a tempest is expe&ed, why not prepare to meet it, and,
in the language of the poet, exclaim —

** Then let the trial come, and witness thou
If terror be upon me, if I shrink
Or falter in my strength to meet the storm,
When hardest it besets me."

True greatness never wavers; but when the Missouri
compromise was entered into by you, for the benefit of
slavery, there was a mighty shrinkage of hvestern honor;
and from that day, sir, the sterling Yankee, the struggling
Abolitionist, and the staunch Democrat, with a large num-
ber of the liberal-minded Whigs, have marked you as a
blackleg in politics, begging for a chance to shuffle your-
self into the presidential chair, where you might deal out
the destinies oi our beloved country for a game of brag,
that would end in " Hark, from the tombs a doeful sound"
Start not at this pi&ure, for your " whole life, character,
and conduct, V have been spotted with deeds that cause a
blush upon the. face of a virtuous patriot. So you must be
contented in your lot, while crime, cowardice, cupidity, or
low cunning, have handed you down from the high tower
of a statesman to the black hole of a gambler.

36 CORRESPONDENCE.

A man that accepts a challenge, or fights a duel, is
nothing more nor less than a murderer, for the holy writ*
declares that "whoso sheds mart's blood, by man shall his
blood be shed; ,f and when, in the renowned city of Wash-
ington, the notorious Henry Clay dropped from the sum-
mit of a senator to* the sink of a scoundrel, to shoot at that
chalk line of a Randolph, he not only disgraced his own
fame, family, and friends, but he polluted the saniltim isanc z
torum of American glory; and the kingly blackguards
throughout the whole world are pointing the finger of scorn
at the boasted "asylum of the oppressed," and hissing at
American statesmen, as gentlemen vagabonds and 'murderers,
holding the olive branch of peace in one hand and a pistol
for death in the other! Well might the Savior rebuke the
heads of this nation with Wo unto you Scribes, Pharisees,
Hypocrites, for the United States Government and Congress,
with a few honorable exceptions, have gone tie way of
Cain, and must perish in their gainsayings, like Korah and
his wicked host. And honest men of every clime, and the
innocent, poor, and oppressed, as well as Heathens, Pa-
gans, and Indians, everywhere, who could but hope that
the tree of liberty would yield some precious fruit for the
hungry human race, and shed some balmy leaves for the
healing of nations, have long since given up all hopes of
equal rights, of justice, and judgment, and of truth and
virtue, when such polluted, vain, heaven-daring, bogus
patriots, are forced or flung into the front rank of govern-
ment, to guide the destinies of millions. Crape the
heavens with weeds of woe, gird the earth with sackcloth-
and let hell mutter one melody in commemoration of fallen
splendor! For the glory of America has departed, and
God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree of liberty,
while such mint-tithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs, Ben-
ton, Calhoun, and Clay, are._ thrust out of the realms of

CORRESPONDENCE. 37

virtue, as fit subjects for the kingdom of fallen greatness;
vox reprobi, vox Diaboli!

In your late addresses to the people of South Carolina,
where rebellion budded, but could not blossom, you "re-
nounced ultraism," "high tariff," and almost banished
your "banking systems" for the more certain standard of
"public opinion." This is all very well, and marks the
intention of a politician, the calculations of a demagogue,
and the allowance for leeings of a shrewd manager, just as
truly as the weathercock does the wind when it turns upon
the spire. Hustings for the south, barbacues for the west,
confidential letters for the north, and "American system"
for the east.

" Lull-a-by baby upon the tree top,

And when the wind blows the cradle will rock."

Suppose you should also, taking your "whole life,
character, and conduct," into consideration, and, as many
hands make light- work, stir up the old "Clay party," the
" National Republican party," the "High Protective Tariff
party," and the late "Coon Skin party," with-all their
paraphernalia, ultraism, ne plus ultraism, sine qua non y
which have grown with your growth, strengthened with
your strength, and shrunk with your -shrinkage, and ask
the people of this enlightened Republic, what they think
of your powers and policy as a statesman; for verily it
would seem, from all past remains of parties, politics, pro.
je<5ts, and pi&ures, that you are the Clay, and the people
the potter; and as some vessels are marred in the hands of
the potter, the natural conclusion is, that you are a vessel of
dishonor.

You may complain that a close examination of your
"whole life, chara&er, and conduct " places you, as a
Kentuckian would pleasantly term it, " in a bad fix." But,
sir, when the nation has sunk deeper and deeper 'in the

38 CORRESPONDENCE.

mud at every turn of the great wheels of the Union, while
you have a<5ied as one of the principal drivers, it becomes
the bounden duty of the whole community, as one man, to
whisper you on every point of government, to uncover
every aft of your life, and inquire what mighty a<5ts you
have done to benefit the nation, how much you have tithed
the mint to gratify your Inst, and why the fragments of
your raiment hang upon the thorns by the path as signals
to beware!

But your shrinkage is truly wonderful! Not only •
your banking system and high tariff project, have vanished
from your mind, "like the baseless fabric of a vision,"
but the "annexation of Texas'* has touched your pathetic
sensibilities of national pride sO acutely, that the poorTex-
ans, your own brethren, may fall back into the ferocity of
Mexico, or be sold at auftion to British btock-jobbtrs, .md
all is well, for "I," the old senator from Kentucky, am
fearful it would militate against my interest in the north, -to
enlarge the borders of the Union in the south. Truly, " a
poor wise child is better than an old foolish king, who will be
no longer admonished." Who ever heard of a nation
that had too much territory? Was it ever bad policy to
make friends ? Has any people ever become too good to
do good! No, never; but the ambition and vanity of
some men have flown away with their wisdom and judg-
ment, and left a croaking skeleto?i to occupy the place of a
noble soul.

Why, sir, the condition of the whole earth is lament-
able. Texas dreads the teeth and toe nails of Mexico.
Oregon has the rheumatism, brought on by a horrid expos-
ure to the heat and cold of British and American trappers;
Canada has caught a bad cold from extreme fatigue in the
patriot war; South America has the headache, caused by
bumps against the beams of Catholicity and Spanish sov-

CORRESPONDENCE. 59

ereignty. Spain has the gripes from age and inquisition.
France trembles and wastes under the effects of contagious
diseases. England groans with the gout, and wiggles with
wine. Italy and the German States are pale with consump-
tion. Prussia, Poland, and the little contiguous dynasties,
duchies, and domains, have the mumps so severely, that
"the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint."
Russia has the cramp by. lineage. Turkey has the numb
palsy. Africa, from the curse of God, has lost the use of her
limbs. China is ruined by the Queen's evil, and the rest of
Asia fearfully exposed to the small-pox, the natural way,
from British peddlers. The islands of the sea are almost
dead with the scurvy. The Indians are blind and lame;
and the United States, which ought to be the good physi-
cian with "balm from Gilead", and an " asylum for the op-
pressed" has boosted and is boosting up into the council
chamber of the Government a clique of political gamblers,
to play for the old clothes and old shoes of a sick world,
and " no pledge, no promise to any particular portion of the
people" that the rightful heirs will ever receive a cent of
their father's legacy ! Away with such self-important, self-ag-
grandizing and self-willed demagogues! Their friendship is
colder than polar ice, and their profession meaner than
the damnation of hell.

O man! when such a great dilemma of the globe, such
a tremendous convulsion of kingdoms shakes the earth
from centre to circumference; when castles, prison-houses,
and cells raise a cry to God against the cruelty of man;
when the mourning of the fatherless and the widow causes
anguish in heaven; when the poor among all nations cry
day and night for bread, and a shelter from the heat and
storm; and when the degraded black slave holds up his
manacled hands to the great statesmen of the United States,
and sings —

40 CORRESPONDENCE.

■ i. ■ ... .....„..,. ...... . ■»,.■■■■>>

11 liberty, where are thy charms,
That sages have told me were sweet?*'

And when fifteen thousand free citizens of the high -blooded
republic of North America are robbed and driven from one
State to another without redress or redemption, it is not
only time for a candidate for the Presidency to pledge him-
self to execute judgment and justice in righteousness, law
or no law; but it is his bounden duty. as a man, forjhe
honor of a disgraced country, and for the salvation" of a
once virtuous people to call for a union of all honest men,
and appease the wrath of God by adts of wisdom, holiness,
and virtue! "The fervent prayer of a righteous rnan
availeth much."

Perhaps you may think I go too far with my strictures
and innuendos, because in your concluding paragraph you
say: — "It is not inconsistent with your declarations to say,
that you have viewed with a lively interest the progress of
the Latter-day Saints, that you have sympathized in their
sufferings, under injustice, as it appeared to you, which has*
been infli&ed upon them; and that you think, in common
with all other religious communities, they ought to enjoy
the security and protection of the Constitution and the
laws. 1 ' If words were not wind, and imagination not a
vapor, such "views" " with a lively i?iterest" might coax
out a few " Mormon" votes ;~such " sympathy " for their
suffering under injustice might heal some of the sick, yet
lingering amongst them; raise some of the dead, and
recover some of their property, from Missouri; and finally,
if thought was not a phantom, we might, in common with
other religious corritnunities, "you think" enjoy the security
and protection of the Constitution and laws. But during ten
years, while the Latter-day Saints have bled, been robbed,
driven from their own lands, paid oceans of money into
the Treasury to pay your renowned self and others for

CORRESPONDENCE. 41

legislating and dealing out equal rights and privileges to
those in common with all other religions communities, they
have waited and expefted in vain! If you have possessed
any patriotism, it has been veiled by your popularity for
fear the Saints would fall in love with its charms. Blind
charity and dumb justice never do much towards alleviating
the wants of the needy, but straws show which way the
wind blows. It is currently rumored that yo£r demier
resort for the Latter-day Saints is to emigrate to Oregon
or California. Such cruel humanity, such noble injustice,
such honorable cowardice, such foolish wisdom, ancj such
vicious virtue, could only emanate from Clay. After the
Saints have been plundered of three or four millions of land
and property, by the people and powers of the sovereign
State of Missouri — after they have sought for redress and
redemption from the county court to Congress, and been
denied through religious prejudice and sacerdotal dignity
— after they have builded a city and two temples at an
immense expense of labor and treasure — after they have
increased from hundreds to hundreds of thousands — and
after they have sent missionaries to the various nations of
the earth, to gather Israel, according to the predictions of
all the holy prophets since the world began — that great
plenipotentiary, the renowned Secretary of State, the
ignoble duellist, the gambling senator, and Whig candidate
for the presidency. Henry Clay, the wise Kentucky lawyer,
advises the Latter-day Saints tp go to Oregon, to obtain
justice, and set up a government of their own. O ye
crowned heads among all nations, is not Mr. Clay a wise
man, and very patriotic! Why, great God! to transport
200,000 people through a vast prairie, over the Rocky
Mountains, to Oregon, a distance of nearly 2,000 miles,
would cost more than four millions, or should they go by
Cape Horn, in ships to California, the cost would be more

42 CORRESPONDENCE.

«han twenty millions! and all this to save the United States
from inheriting the disgrace of Missouri, for murdering
and robbing the Saints with impunity! Benton and Van
Buren, who make no secret to say, if they get into power
they will carry out Boggs' exterminating plan, to rid the
country or the Latter day Saints, are

" Little nipperkins of milk,"

compared to "Clay's" great aquafortis jars. Why, he is
a real giant in humanity! * 'Send the Mormons to Oregon
and free Missouri from debt and disgrace!" Ah! sir, let
this do6lrine go to-and-fro throughout the whole earth —
that we, as Van Buren said, know your cause is just, but
the United States Government can do nothing, for you,
because it has no power. " You must go to Oregon, and
get justice from the Indians!"

I mourn for the depravity of the world; I despise the
hypocrisy of , Christendom; I hate the imbecility of
American statesmen; I detest 'the shrinkage of candidates
for office, from pledges and responsibility : I long for a day
of righteousness, when He "whose right it is to reign,
shall judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek
of the earth," and I pray God, who hath given our fathers
a promise of a perfe6l government in the last days, to
purify the hearts of the people, and hasten the welcome.
day.

With the highest consideration for virtue and unadul-
terated freedom,. I have the honor to be,

, . Your obedient servant,

JOSEPH SMITH.
Hon. H.' Clay, Ashland, Ky.

Date Due

All library items are subject to recall 3 weeks from
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AU6 1 6 2002

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MAR 3 2004

JUL iS'tiin MAR 04?

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SEP 1 2 2003

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DEC 1 20)3

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